Recipe for region: New plan, more pride
Midwesterners often boast about their low cost of living and high quality of life, perks that have convinced a number of businesses to call Kansas City home over the years.
Unfortunately, these strengths haven’t been enough to woo many other corporate executives who instead are attracted to the coasts or to big-city lifestyles in Chicago, Denver or Dallas.
So here comes another effort to pump up the benefits of living and investing in our neck of the woods. This one, though, is larger than Kansas City and even the metropolitan area. The Heartland Civic Collaborative is a project supported by the Greater Kansas City Civic Council as well as civic leaders in Omaha, Des Moines and St. Louis to promote more of the region’s strengths.
A life sciences initiative has particular appeal because of the exceptional work done in the last decade on that issue by a number of people in Kansas and Missouri. And certainly making these cities more welcoming for entrepreneurs must be a priority in an age when anyone with a laptop can start a new business that might grow into the Next Big Thing.
Cooperating on a regional basis could help build a more visible brand for this part of the country. But let’s face it: so could a more positive attitude by civic boosters in Kansas City and the three other cities.
As one supporter of entrepreneurs pointed out, the region needs to have less of the “aw-shucks, we’re the Midwest” approach and more pride and confidence in its future. Good advice.
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